Schumer calls for investigation into Florida's unemployment system
Unemployment system: The backlog within the backlog
Florida has made some progress in paying unemployment claims. But many of you are still telling us you are still stuck in the backlog or think you’ve been wrongly denied. FOX 13’s Craig Patrick found some people are stuck in a loop with seemingly no end.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Senate Democrat, called on the Department of Labor to investigate Florida’s glitch-ridden unemployment system, asserting on Monday that the state mismanaged claims and failed to deliver timely benefits after massive job losses from the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter to the department's inspector general, Schumer joined the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, in requesting an inquiry into the Department of Labor’s oversight of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, which administers the application portal for jobless benefits.
“While all states have seen record increases in the number of its residents applying for unemployment, the state of Florida’s performance has proved uniquely poor in its abject inability to assist millions of Florida residents who have applied for and continue to await unemployment benefits,” their letter said.
The Democratic senators assert that the state has only paid 28% of the 2 million Floridians applying for benefits since March 15 — about the time when Gov. Ron DeSantis closed bars and nightclubs, drastically restricted restaurant operations and put in place stay-at-home social distancing policies.
However, state officials say more than 90 percent of 1.3 million eligible claimants have been paid. The state’s calculation does not include nearly 500,000 people i initially deemed ineligible.
The senators questioned the slow place in which unemployment funds have been paid out to the state's newly unemployed, including money disbursed through the federal economic rescue package. Meanwhile, the senators noted that Florida is the only state whose unemployment trust fund gained money in that period.
DeSantis has acknowledged that his state's unemployment system is broken and ordered his own investigators to look into the system's failures.
Florida officials had no immediate comment.
DeSantis has begun reopening much of Florida's economy, allowing some Floridians to return to work even as the state continues to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.
As of Monday, the state has recorded nearly 65,000 coronavirus infections, with more than 2,700 Floridians having died from the virus.
The Democratic senators said problems with Florida's CONNECT system predated the pandemic, which caused the state's unemployment rate to spiked to 12.9% in April, up from 4.3% the month before.
State audits had found repeated failures in the system, which the governor has acknowledged was not designed to be able to handle the surge in claims.